Provides Wells Fargo Consumer Credit and Debit Cardholders with a faster, easier, secure checkout experience at millions of places that accept contactless payments
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) announced today a newly enhanced,
simplified checkout experience with the launch of contactless consumer
credit and debit cards. The new cards will allow customers to complete a
transaction quickly with a single tap at millions of merchants,
including transit systems, around the world that accept contactless
payments – an additional option to inserting or swiping their cards, or
leveraging a digital wallet to authorize a payment. Later this year,
customers will also be able to tap to initiate an ATM transaction at
Wells Fargo’s more than 13,000 ATMs across the nation.
“At Wells Fargo, our goal is to make the payments experience as seamless
as possible for our customers, which is why we are so pleased to launch
contactless credit cards for simple tap-to-pay checkouts,” said Beverly
Anderson, head of Wells Fargo Cards and Retail Services. “According to
Visa, contactless payments will soon be ubiquitous, with 78 out of the
top 100 U.S. merchants (by transactions) currently offering the ability
to tap-to-pay at checkout. For years consumers around the globe have
been demonstrating great affinity for tap-to-pay cards and Wells Fargo
consumer credit and debit card customers in the U.S. can now enjoy the
same secure, expedited checkout experience.”
This week, new Wells Fargo consumer credit cardholders began receiving
cards with the contactless feature when opening an account, and existing
Wells Fargo consumer credit cardholders will receive a new contactless
card when their current credit card expires. Consumer debit cards with
the contactless feature will start to become available this summer. The
bank, which is the industry’s #1 debit card issuer by purchase and
transaction volume1, will start issuing newly redesigned
consumer debit cards with the contactless feature to new cardholders and
those who are in need of a replacement card.
“The new contactless feature adds speed and convenience to the checkout
experience. We believe customers will adopt this as an alternative to
cash that is both simple and secure,” said Ed Kadletz, head of Wells
Fargo Deposit Products Group. “We are excited to offer our customers –
who use their Wells Fargo Debit Card more than 8.8 billion times per
year – a new payment option that they can use at a growing number of
merchants, as well as Wells Fargo ATMs.”
In addition to purchases or payments, this fall Wells Fargo customers
will be able to “tap” their Wells Fargo Debit Cards with the contactless
feature to initiate a transaction at Wells Fargo’s ATMs that display the
contactless symbol, including most of the company’s more than 13,000
ATMs. The ability to use a contactless debit card to “tap” and initiate
an ATM transaction uses the same near-field communication (NFC)
functionality Wells Fargo introduced in October 2017, which also allows
Wells Fargo customers to use a digital wallet to initiate an ATM
transaction. Today, more than 10,000 ATMs (75 percent of the network)
have digital wallet access, and the remaining will be enabled by the end
of this year.
Several major transit systems are among the many merchants accepting
contactless payments. Today’s announcement comes ahead of the New York
Metropolitan Transit Authority’s launch
later this year of their planned 18-month rollout to support contactless
payments at turnstiles and on buses across the city. Portland’s Tri-Met
transit authority currently supports contactless payments throughout the
Portland area for buses and trains. Chicago CTA also accepts contactless
payments for its bus and train fares. Approximately 95 percent of all
new POS terminals purchased by merchants in the U.S. are
contactless-capable, and tapping to pay with a contactless card or
payment-enabled device is one of the fastest ways to pay.
“Visa has seen customers around the world quickly embrace the speed,
convenience and security of tapping to pay with contactless cards. We
are excited to work with Wells Fargo to deliver this improved checkout
experience to Wells Fargo customers,” said Dan Sanford, vice president,
consumer products, Visa. “With even more merchants across the U.S.
accepting contactless payments, Wells Fargo customers now have a fast,
easy and secure way to make everyday purchases.”
Wells Fargo’s contactless card feature is built on secure EMV®
Chip technology – the same dynamic security as contact EMV cards.
Offering convenient payment capabilities like contactless cards is part
of Wells Fargo’s commitment to leverage the latest technologies to
deliver to customers what they tell us they want: simple, easy and fast
ways to bank.
About Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a diversified, community-based
financial services company with $1.9 trillion in assets. Wells Fargo’s
vision is to satisfy our customers’ financial needs and help them
succeed financially. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco,
Wells Fargo provides banking, investment and mortgage products and
services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through 7,800
locations, more than 13,000 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and
mobile banking, and has offices in 37 countries and territories to
support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With
approximately 259,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three
households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 26
on Fortune’s 2018 rankings of America’s largest corporations. News,
insights and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells
Fargo Stories.
1 https://nilsonreport.com/publication_chart_and_graphs_archive.php?1=1&year=2018
